Step down for snap polls, Suranjit asks govt

"In view of the present suffocating situation, I do not think there is any option other than holding snap polls", he said while addressing a council of Satkhira Poura Awami League on Thursday.

He was the chief guest at the council held at the Shahid Abdur Razzak Park.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Suranjit bitterly criticised the government for what he called its "total failure in running run the country".

He held the BNP-Jamaat government responsible for the "killing of at least 58 people by law enforces in the name of Operation Clean Heart" last year.

He also criticised the government for indemnifying law enforcers' activities during the operation.

The veteran parliamentarian said AL wants to join parliament but the government "does not want to see the Opposition in the House lest their misdeeds and corruption get exposed".

Addressing the council, AL Organising Secretary Abdul Mannan alleged that ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami is "harbouring over a dozen fundamentalist groups" in the country.

"These trained armed men have targeted Awami League to eliminate it", he said.

Being freedom fighter, former president and BNP's founder Zaiur Rahman patronised "collaborators of Pakistan occupation army", he said.

Presided over by Satkhira Poura Awami League Prsident Sheikh Ashruaful Haq, the council was addressed by, among others, former state minister Talukdar Abdul Khalequ, SM Kamal Hosain, former MCA Mamtaz Ahmed, engineer Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, former MP Monsur Ahmed, Nazrul Islam, Kazi Kamal and Insur Ali.

The council formed a 67-member Satkhira Poura Awami League committee headed by Sheikh Nurul Haq and Firoz Ahmed as its president and general secretary respectively.